Steve Miller Band - touching story of a mentor

[Frederick Skelly]

Not sure how this came up on my list of news articles, but I enjoyed it. Maybe some of you will too. Steve Miller met a 13 yr old guitar player and befriended him, even letting him play a bit on stage with the band. It's a long read but a pleasant one. LINK

I loved these three quotes:
"To a lot of Steve Miller Band fans, the seventies hits are like “chocolate cake.” They’re warm and pleasurable comfort food, reminiscent of a Summer of ’76 picnic. They’re rock without the chaos, the blues without the pain, an America with the freedom of an endless road trip."

"The problem is, when Steve announces a song that’s not chocolate cake, hundreds of people get up for a hot dog. So, halfway through that set in Houston, he didn’t say, “We’re going to take a break from radio hits and play four blues covers”; he just asked the crowd to help welcome to the stage a fourteen-year-old kid from the great state of Texas."

"Steve’s mentorship taught me something that I didn’t want to learn: it isn’t a quality that you’re given but a question of how much you’re willing to give. Whether you want to make high art or big-money chocolate cake, you have to be monomaniacally committed to getting there. You won’t create music that’s effortless or individual without giving your effort or yourself completely to it. And by that definition, Steve has it, and I clearly never did."

Fred

[Peter Mich]

The article reminded me that reaching a high level of skill requires not just some mix of innate talent and hours and hours of practice, but also an encouraging mentor and role model. Thanks for sharing.

[Terry Wawro]

I read that article yesterday. I was touched that he would remember the young man and take the time to mentor him.